The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1887-12-16
SOLDIERS HARD FATE.

in West Virginia 20 years ago. a
woman was auxiously bending over a
| sick child tossing and mutteringin the
unrest of fever. Every now and then
the word father" escaped the child's
lips,
That child grieves powerfully after
her father" said one OF the neighbors,
who had come to help the mother
nurse the i'll child.
That she does" replied the poor
mother, with % weary sigh. "He al
ways set q world OF store by her. 1t
aIalosc broke her little heart when he
went to the war, and since she has
been sick she has begged for hun the
p~it;fullest you ever heard.
Cant he come to see herr" asked
the neighbor.
NO." replied the woman; "his COZ
onel said he couldn't be spared now
He had a turlough last summer. II
he just had known about this and
waited. Seems to me she might get
well if she Just could see her father,
and it wouldn't fall so hard on me,
either, ii he was here"
Several days went by and little
Sallie, the sick child, grew worse. At
length tine mother wrote IN urgent
letter to her husband, out of the
agony OF her heart. impIoring him to
come home at all costs if he wished to
see his little daughter alive again.
Once more he asked for a furlough
and again he was refused. An engage
ment was pending. The enemy's force
was greatly superior to ours and not
a man could be spared.
John Ball vas a brave man; he had
proved that in many an engagement.
Nothing could have tempted MIN to
swerve from his duty as a soldier, ex-
ceDt his frantic desire to see his child
once more. Under the pressure OF
this feeling, he left the camp against
orders, and fled to his rude cabin
among the Alleghenies just in time to
see little Sallie's face light up once
more with o CLEAN of joyful recogni-
ton, and to receive her parting kiss.
To do this he had incurred the brand
of deserter, and had taken his life in
his hands.
Scarcely we're the child's remains in.
tered than he, without waiting to
comfort his sorrow-striCken wife, start
ed back to camp, intending to throw
himself on the mercy ofhis commander
for exculpation of an otfense commit
ted under so overwhelming a pressure,
or if the worst came to the worst to
meet his fate like a man. But q new
complication had arisen. During the
few days he had been absent the men
on either side had changed their posi-
ton like the figures on a chess-board,
and the eBenly's troops had come he.
tween him and his command. He had
travelled through n cold d%renching
rain, sleeping at night in a forest to
lessen the risk of failing into the en-
emy's hands. He began to feel a
strange stupor creeping over him and
was Just able to drag himself to the
house OF a friendly countryman, VINO
took him in and kept him for thenext
few weeks, during which time he lay
i'll OF pneumonia. just as he was be-
genning to c~onvalesce, and be-
fore he had had time
to voluntarily give himself up, he was
arrested as d deserter. His wife foi.
him to the camp ard pleaded
for him, telling the cause OF his deser-
ton with all the rude eloquence that
emotion could dictate and
all the blame on herself. In
vain; he was tried and condemned by
every rule of war as a deserter. The
commanding officer, however, made
this concession to the agonized WIFE,
ee would defer the execution for three
so as to give her time to 90 to
and implore the clemency
President Davis, which was now
the sole hope for the prisoners life.
Like Jennie Deans going to plead
before the queen Tor her sisters life,
the simple mountain woman
went TO the Confederate capital
and pleaded her husbands
cause before Jefferson Davis. /
She had it in her power to prove that
he had shown himself O. brave soldier:
that he had not left the camp from
cowardice, or from detection to the
cause, but from his overwhelming
for his dying child and his intense
to see her once more before shell
away. Davis finally granted
the mans pardon and drew UP a paper
to that etEecu, which he gave to a mes
senger, directing him to take the next
train and carry the dispatch to the
prisoners commanding officer. He.
moreover, gave the woman a dupli-
cate paper, TO make her husbands
the more certain.
Joyfllly she started Of with the pre-
cious document that was to carry life
and liberty to her beloved
husband The cars seemed All
too slow for her burning
impatience. The train was always
heavily loaded 10 those days; there
was so much travelling to and fro; SO
much shifting OF the troops from one
nnlnt to annthar- Ernnn hnra -